Habits and Trust

(Originally posted on LinkedIn 1/6/2025)

Trying out a whole new “posting about tech stuff” thing, for the heck of it. We could call it a New Year’s Resolution, but Iet’s keep a lower pressure on this, shall we?

Today’s random topic I’m picking out of thin air: habit-breaking, habit-forming, and trust.

IT is full of many difficult tasks. While I could wax poetic about the finer points of “Active Directory Disaster Recovery” or the difficulties of “Adjusting to Microsoft’s Endless Changes to its Admin Centers”, little is harder than trying to get anyone to change their habits. Getting anyone to try something new can be extremely challenging to begin with; then compound that with getting someone to abandon something they’ve done or used for years.

Some people want to take a “direct” approach to this; disable the old thing, yell at them when they don’t use the new thing, etc. This can work, I suppose, but that’ll only be OK if your management is willing to use such severe measures as a tactic. I’d also note that such tactics usually belie a pretty terrible work environment, but that’s a different conversation.

As always, the best way to deal with humans is with the carrot, not the stick.

Which would you prefer:

– Someone saying “you have to stop using that, and you have to start using this instead.”

– Someone saying “check this new thing out, it does this and this better than that, it’ll save us time, right?”

I have to believe most well-adjusted people would prefer the latter approach. And you’d never guess which one is more effective! (Spoiler alert: it’s the latter.)

And at the core of this, it’s not even as superficial as espousing positives and winning approval. It’s trusting people with the “why.” Most reasonable people, if you tell them why something is happening, they’re going to be cool about it. Even if the reason is some ultra-boring “it’ll save us money,” that’s still in the interest of everyone, since that’s money that could/should find its way into bonus payouts or raises. “It’ll save the admins time” translates easily into “I’ll have more time to spend on keeping things running and making your life easier.”

Leading with “why” is a simple level of trust, and it doesn’t cost anything. The power of that trust is obvious, as it divides how we treat people.

Taking away a toy and demanding a change in behavior; that’s how you treat an ornery child, or a criminal, or someone who hasn’t responded to better action.

Most people are responsible grown-ups. Treat them that way, and they’ll act like responsible grown-ups too.